Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 19, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleHungarian police banned the Budapest Pride march citing child protection laws. The mayor argues it's a municipal event needing no permits, amid rising political tensions.
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungarian police said on Thursday that they were banning the Budapest Pride march of the LGBTQ+ community planned for June 28, despite the city's mayor saying it was a municipal event that requires no permits from authorities.
Hungary’s parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches, citing the protection of children. It also lets police use facial recognition cameras to identify people who attend.
Budapest's liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony tried to circumvent the law when he announced on Monday that since the Budapest Pride march will be a municipal event "no permits from authorities are needed".
Budapest metropolitan police, however, said the law applied to the event organised by the mayor and banned it.
The police ban has "no relevance" as authorities were not officially notified of the plans for the event, Karacsony said on Facebook.
"The Metropolitan Municipality will host the Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration on June 28, the day of Hungarian freedom, as a municipal event. Period," the mayor wrote. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the protest.
Orban faces a challenging election in 2026 where a new surging opposition party poses a threat to his rule.
His government has a Christian conservative agenda and its intensifying campaign against the LGBTQ community has aimed to please Fidesz's core voters, mostly in the countryside.
Orban said in February that organisers should not even bother organising Pride in Budapest this year.
(Reporting by Anita Komuves;Editing by Alison Williams and Ed Osmond)
Hungarian police banned the Budapest Pride march citing a new law that allows them to prohibit LGBTQ marches, which was passed by the ruling Fidesz Party.
Mayor Gergely Karacsony attempted to bypass the ban by declaring the Pride march a municipal event, stating that no permits were needed.
The ban comes amid a Christian conservative agenda by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, which has intensified its campaign against the LGBTQ community to appeal to core voters.
The Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration is planned for June 28, coinciding with the day of Hungarian freedom.
Orban faces a challenging election in 2026, with a new opposition party emerging as a significant threat to his rule.
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